BENGALURU, INDIA - October 13, 2026 - KPI Partners, a specialized cloud, data, and enterprise AI company, has won two awards at Cypher 2026, India's largest AI conference organized by AIM, held October 7–9, 2026 at KTPO, Bengaluru. The company received the Minsky Award for Excellence in AI Strategy Consulting, presented by AIM, and was named Best Firm for FDE Talent.
Most enterprises no longer struggle to start with AI; they struggle to finish. Pilots stall between the strategy deck and the production system, often because the people who design the plan are not the people who build it. The two Cypher recognitions honor KPI Partners for closing that gap from both ends: the Minsky Award for the clarity of its AI strategy work, and Best Firm for FDE Talent for the Forward Deployed Engineers who turn that strategy into working systems inside client environments.
For clients, the two awards point to one thing: a single accountable team from first conversation to production. KPI Partners' Enterprise AI Advisory practice decides where AI will create value and what it takes to get there - the data foundations, the governance, the business case. Its FDE practice then embeds domain-native experts with the client's own teams to build and run Agentic AI, GenAI, and data solutions, owning the outcome end to end. Nothing is lost in handoff, decisions are made close to the business, and AI investments reach production faster and stay there.
For KPI Partners, the recognition validates a deliberate bet. The company chose to build strategy and engineering as one capability, and to grow its FDE bench rather than rely on arm's-length delivery. Being recognized for both, on the same stage and in the same week, confirms that the model works - and strengthens the company's ability to attract the specialist talent its clients increasingly depend on.
"Enterprises don't need more AI pilots; they need AI that works inside their business and pays for itself," said Kusal Swarnakar, Chief Executive Officer, KPI Partners. "These two awards recognize exactly that: a clear point of view on where AI creates value, and engineers who stay with the problem until it does. Thank you to AIM and the Cypher jury. The credit belongs to our teams who earn our clients' trust every day."
"These awards are a proud moment for everyone at KPI Partners," said Rajesh Ramachandran, Chief Operating Officer, KPI Partners. "Our clients see the strategy and the engineering as one team, and that's exactly what these awards recognize. They belong to every consultant and FDE who shows up for our customers."
“A Forward Deployed Engineer doesn’t hand over a design and walk away. They sit with the client’s team, learn the business from the inside, and stay until the system is running in production,” said Prashanth Ashwathram, VP – Technology & Head of FDE Practice, KPI Partners. “Being named Best Firm for FDE Talent recognizes the people who do that every day. It also tells the engineers we want to hire exactly what kind of work they’ll be doing here: real problems, real production systems, and real ownership of the outcome.”
Cypher 2026 convened enterprise leaders, AI practitioners, and researchers from across India for three days of dialogue on enterprise AI adoption, GenAI, and the future of the data and AI workforce. KPI Partners engaged more than 200 data and AI professionals at its booth, and Sumar Loomba, VP- Delivery & Growth spoke on "No Context, No Capability: How India's GCCs Turn Data into an AI Advantage."
The impact will be felt first by clients. KPI Partners will use this momentum to expand its FDE practice, putting more domain-native experts inside client teams so that more AI programs move from roadmap to production, and stay there, with one accountable partner owning the result. For enterprises weighing who to trust with their AI agenda, the recognition offers independent proof that the firm can both set the direction and deliver it. It also sharpens KPI Partners' pull for the specialist AI, data, and engineering talent its clients depend on. Coming after its September recognitions at the 25th Asia Pacific HRM Congress & Awards and the AIM AI in Marketing Summit, the Cypher wins mark KPI Partners as a firm recognized not only for what it advises, but for how it hires, builds, and runs AI itself - the same standard it now brings to every client engagement.
About KPI Partners
KPI Partners is a global strategic partner helping enterprises redefine what's possible with Enterprise AI, Data, and Analytics. Founded in 2006, KPI Partners brings 20 years of experience and a team of 600+ consultants serving 300+ customers across Retail & CPG, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Life Sciences & Healthcare, High-Tech, Energy & Utilities, and Higher Education.
KPI Partners' capabilities span four core areas: Enterprise AI (Agentic AI, GenAI, and Data Science & ML), Data & BI Services (Data Engineering and Business Intelligence), Platform Modernization (Data Platform Migration, BI Platform Migration, and Cloud FinOps & Governance), and Enterprise Software (Custom App Development and ERP Consulting).
Through its proprietary migration accelerators for BI modernization, data platform migration, pre-built analytics for enterprise ERP systems, and GenAI, KPI Partners helps enterprises modernize faster, smarter, and with less risk.
The company maintains strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Databricks, Snowflake, Anthropic, AWS, Google Cloud, and Oracle, and is recognized by CIO Times as “Fastest growing Analytics and AI companies driving business in 2026” and ISO 27001:2022 certified as well as Great Place to Work® certified for six consecutive years.
For more information, visit www.kpipartners.com.
Media Contact
Nishika Gupta
Senior Marketing Associate, KPI Partners
Email: press@kpipartners.com